Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The front page above-the-fold story in Tuesday's edition of Wendy McCaw's News-Press was about a dog who died after escaping from the wreck of the car in which it was traveling.

Yep. Another dog-gone News-Press story.

Noting that the body of the lab retriever was found on Saturday not far from the scene of where the car crashed a few days earlier associate editor Scott Steepleton, who reported the story, went on to say; "But the discovery raises some questions, including why did the search go so far afield when the body was so close to the crash site? And why did the driver, who apparently fell asleep at the wheel before the crash in the early morning hours of May 13, kick open a door, allowing Plato and another dog, a poodle named Willow, escape into the early morning darkness?"

With the deceased dog getting the high profile treatment on the front page, the News-Press apparently had no room to report on the police nabbing a naked guy while he was in the middle of a hot prowl burglary in a neighborhood near City College.

Turns out the information I had yesterday that Scott Steepleton had assumed the editor's duties for the Life section of the paper in the wake of the lay off of Mindy Spar proved to be incorrect.

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Today at noon, First Amendment attorney Michael Cooney will be speaking on "Media Law: The First Amendment, Defamation, and Protecting Reporters' Sources in an Election Year." Location is the Santa Barbara College of Law, 20 E. Victoria Street. Cost is $25.

Craig Smith is a law professor and has been blogging about the local Santa Barbara scene since 2006. When he’s not teaching law school classes or blogging, he enjoys bike riding, skiing and playing piano.